1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related generally to a laser tube having a tubular housing composed of a glass or ceramic material and including at least one metal mirror mount with an integrated mirror.
2. Description of the Related Art
A laser tube is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,087,762 wherein mirrors are inserted into mirror mounts and are tightly hermetically joined thereto via glass solder. The mirror mounts have coefficients of thermal expansion which are matched to that of the mirrors. This requires that the mirror mounts be formed of a relatively expensive material and that they have a particularly complicated structure, since a transition must be formed from the mirror mount to an end face terminating plate of the laser tube and the terminating plate has a coefficient of thermal expansion matched to that of the laser housing. In other words, the terminating plate of the laser is composed of a different material having a different coefficient of thermal expansion than that of the mirror mount.